My invention relates to fish attractors and lures, and more particularly, to fish attractors and lures adapted to rotate, flash or otherwise attract fish when drawn through water.
I have been a fisherman almost all my life.
Prior to 1984 I worked as a sheet metal journeyman where I had access to left over or scrap material that I could use to make my own fishing lures. I started making flashers or lures sometime between 1980 and 1984. I used polished stainless steel during that time. However, my career as a sheet metal worker ended on Mar. 12, 1984, when I became disabled as a result of an industrial accident.
I still have two of the early stainless steel models that I made before I was disabled. These two were among others that I used publicly and gave to fishermen friends. Each of them had a generally triangular planar body portion. The body portions each had an apex and a base. An aperture was positioned centrally of the apex for attachment to the end of a fishing line. A second aperture was positioned generally centrally of the base for attachment to a fishing hook.
In each case the apex portion of the body portion was bent. A first bend bent the body portion out of its plane. A second bend bent the end of the apex portion into a second plane parallel to the plane of the body portion. These two bends provided a longitudinal oscillatory motion to the attractors along their longitudinal axes as the attractors were pulled through the water.
In addition, I bent each of the opposite ends of the base out of the plane of the body portion, bending the ends in opposite directions to provide a vane at each of the opposite ends. The vanes rotated the attractors about their longitudinal axes as they were pulled through the water.
One of the early attractors had three three-quarter inch diameter holes cut along its longitudinal axis to provide sound as the attractor was pulled through the water. The other of the early attractors had a one-inch diameter hole cut on its longitudinal axis. The stainless steel provided the attractors with a good shine, but I wasn""t satisfied with the sound that the holes provided.
The stainless steel also made the attractors heavy. This was good for ocean fishing because the weight kept the attractors down deep. However, for river fishing or fishing in shallower waters, the attractors simply weighed too much.
Also, special equipment was required to make the required bends, and a laser was required to cut the holes. This was expensive.
I then experimented with various kinds of plastic. I was looking for a material that was inexpensive and light so I could fish in shallower waters. Also, I wanted a plastic material that wasn""t brittle so that heat would not be needed to bend it.
My final challenge was to improve the noise that the attractor would make as it was pulled through the water. A one and three-quarter or two-inch hole in the center of a plastic body portion gave an attractor a sporadic spinning action and a very open, circular roll, but the hole alone would not provide any discernable noise. Adequate noise was something that had to be achieved.
The patent prior art is replete with designs for lures and attractors. None, however, discloses noise-making ability. One of the prior patents is U.S. Pat. No. Des. 363,113, issued Oct. 10, 1995 to Al E. Hazelquist. The Hazelquist design uses a generally triangular body portion. Apertures are provided at the center of the apex and in the center of the base. In addition, each of the opposite ends of the base is bent out of the plane of the body in opposite directions to provide the attractor with a rotational motion as it is pulled through the water.
A commercial embodiment of the Hazelquist attractor appears to replicate identically the fish attractor shown in FIG. 1 of the ""113 design patent. The embodiment is sold by Big Al""s Tackle Company, Gig Harbor, Wash., as the Fish Flash(copyright) no drag flasher. This commercial embodiment is made of transparent plastic and has holographic tape adhered to one side to provide a flashing appearance.
It was thus the principal object of my invention to improve upon the prior art, including the flashers that I myself had made and used throughout the years. In particular, it was my object to provide my flashers with the ability to produce adequate noise as they rotated and were moved through the water.